Whitewashing Paganism

Apologies in advance that this is little more of a rant, and, as such, is going to be arranged in tidy little lists, rather than paragraphs. There have been too many statements I’ve come across lately regarding what makes a “real Pagan” and an absolutely awful blog post today about “Part-time Pagans” that basically came down to that if you’re not a vegetarian, don’t meditate, don’t worship your ancestors, smoke cigarettes, or drink alcohol then you’re a fake Pagan.

So many, many statements of what “all Pagans” do… and not a single one of them acknowledging that Paganism is not a religion and is little more than an alliance of various religions. I’m just going to toss in a link here to a previous post on What is Paganism to speed things up. tl:dr –most Pagan religions are more different than they are similar.

Now, ranty list time….

ALL Pagans:

• do not meditate
• do not worship the Earth
• do not worship their ancestors
• do not worship “the God and Goddess”
• do not practice Wicca or base their practices upon Wicca in anyway
• do not practice, let alone even believe in, magick or witchcraft
• do not use divination
• do not pray
• do not need to celebrate every holy day or do things just like you or anyone else in order to be “Real Pagans”
• do not believe in reincarnation
• do not believe in the viciously mutilated and appropriated concept of karma
• do not see the world as a happy, shiny place
• do not think that love is the answer to all problems or makes the world go ‘round
• do not think eating meat, or wearing fur, or hunting, or trapping is EVIL (dun dun duuuunnnnnn)
• do not see everyone they meet as their “brother” or “sister”
• are not of European decent or give one crap about European culture and indigenous religions or folk customs
• are not white, heterosexual, or follow “traditional” gender norms
• do not view the world in this effed up duality that is somehow based on the concept of duotheistic polarity (but clearly that train derailed somewhere…)
• are not height/weight proportionate
• do not eat healthy, by choice
• do not do yoga
• are not interested in New Age anything
• ​are not politically liberal

On the flip side, SOME Pagans:

• meditate
• view the Earth as an important part of their spirituality
• honor, not worship, their ancestors, while others don’t for many perfectly valid reasons because it’s their personal path and some of us don’t come from perfect families and have living kin that have done things that we’re still trying to heal from.
• are Wiccan, either Eclectic or British Traditional Wiccan, or have used the ritual structure of Wicca as basis for their celebratory practice and nothing more. 
• follow the religions of Hellenismo, Roma Nova, Asatru, Odinism, Heathenry, Voodoo, Voudon, La Regla Lucumi (Santeria,) Kemetecism, etc, or are just Polytheists, Animists, Henotheists, or even Monotheists whose practices still bare little similarity to Wicca let alone any other religion or path.
• practice magick
• are witches*
• use divination, but that doesn't mean they use tarot cards. They may prefer to scry, use runes or ogham, throw the bones, do wax reading, use oracle cards, or read tea leaves. 
• are vegetarian or vegan and/or animal rights activists
• eat meat and/or go hunting and/or trapping and/or have no problem wearing fur and/or leather. And none of this means they're not "enlightened" -this may, in fact, be a significant part of their spiritual practice and part of how they honor their Gods.
• are heterosexual, but some are also pan/bisexual, homosexual, asexual, trans, agender, gender fluid, or gender neutral, and the relationships they choose to be in may be monogamous, informal, poly, or whatever they choose. And that’s totally fine and still makes them “Real Pagans.”
• see the spiritual world as separate from the physical and any sort of Deity as being “there” (not “here”) and that they need clergy to approach that Deity for them
• only want to “do Pagan things” on the Sabbats or Full Moons, but that doesn’t change their overall worldview or where their hearts and sincerity lay
• are height/weight proportionate, others are not, and you know why that is? It's because we're human and humans come in a variety of shapes and sizes, regardless of what religion you hold.
• are really focused on eating healthy, while others don't care if what they eat is healthy or not, and still others eat as best they can with what means they have. And none of this has anything to do with religion, but for some of us it has everything to do with religion. And both of those are fine.
• do yoga and find it very spiritually satisfying, others don't because they have other preferred exercise methods, and, yeah, others never exercise, and that's okay, too.
• are interested in New Age things.
• have zero interest in anything New Age, and don't accept the Westernized version of chakras, or use crystals, or singing bowls, or believe in angels or spirit guides, etc.
• ​are politically liberal, while others are conservative, and some of us are a little of both and think the Libertarian party deserves more attention. And there's nothing wrong with any of this because religion and politics are not the same thing.
• get really pissed when others presume to know what their spiritual and religious paths, political views, dietary choices, relationship views, et cetera consist of simply because they, too, choose to call themselves Pagan (and then they end up making long ranty lists…)

So, to summarize: sweeping generalizations rarely hold any truth and speaking for others is rude. Don't do that.

* Don’t worry, I’ll eventually get around to tackling a definition for this word, too. One rant at a time, though… ​Update 6/30/2015: finally tackled this topic . Spoiler: a witch is someone who practices witchcraft, there are no other qualifiers. Now, as for what constitutes witchcraft and not some other magickal system and/or practice...

​This post was last updated 8/21/2016.